Welcome to the New Year 2005, the Year the Lord has made, and we are going to rejoice in it.

HALLELUYAH

At FBRCOG(First Born Redemption Church Of God) we have a mandate to seek the face of the Lord for a special new year's message.

This year 2005 is a year to be grateful to God

The main message for this year, for us to live by is a message of Love.

God revealed and spoke to me that his coming is close by, its much more closer than we think.

and we should all exhibit love one to another.

Emphasis on Love :

Whats Love?.

Answer: Love is a very strong warm feeling or deep concern for someone , it comes with a strong passion or strong affection for someone or something.

We should show love one to another in a biblical way.

Loooking into the word(bible), we can see examples of love shown to us by our Lord (JESUS CHRIST). and the commandments of love he has given us.

1) John 3:16 SAYS : For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV).

The first example of love was with God, it started with God , showing love to mankind, and the gift of love shown to us was christ his only begotten son( Jesus Christ) sent to redeem us from destruction, total damnation.

God did not wish and did not like his creation to be destroyed at all, it hurt him to see such destruction and condemnation befall man, so to redeem man and save him from the path of sin,destruction e.t.c he sent Jesus Christ the savior of the World. Without that act of love we won't be here today. without that gift of love there would be no salvation and eternal hope for man.

2) John 15:9-13:

Commandment of love:Christ gave us a new commandment , a commandment of love, love requires us to overlook certain things and give out a hand of love, without showing love its impossible to please God or Jesus Christ at all because love is very important to God. if he could show us love by giving us that special gift of love who are we not to follow or show love?

we should show love one to another regardless of race, or any other differences we may pay alot of attention to as humans. for instance, a senior citizen needs help to get on an elevator, and looks at you a young person to help me out with a little push, you look at him/her with probably a little hatred or disgust, you look down at his/her appearance and walk away. That is an act of hatred or selfish behavior. In that example the young person looked down on the appearance of the senior citizen and refused to offer an assistance even after the senior citizen requested for help, here that young person despised that senior citizen and in general would despise older citizens anywhere anytime because he/she don't have any love in them.

we also find this same commandment of love in John 13 :34,35

We also must not show this love only to humans but to christ also, we need to have the love of God in us, because it brings us closer to him and allows us to do his will and purpose.

For instance if you don't have any passion to be in an occupation or career, you would not pursue it or even agree with what it entails or requires you to do to be successful in it.

Another Commandment Christ gave us can be seen in Matthew 5:44

There are 3 commandments in here it says :

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse,do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you and persecute you.

We are asked to show love to our enemies,

I've got a question for everyone. How many of us can love our enemies or show love to our enemies(people who hate us, despise us, against success in our lives, and just don't want to see us)

Regardless of what our enemies do to us, we should show love to them,take care of them if required, and be concerned whenever they fall into situations that requires us to prove the love of God we have within us.

We are commanded to bless them that curse us.

rather than evil or negative words coming out of our mouths or from within us(thoughts) we should reply curses with blessings because that shows that Gods love within us is well far beyond those curses and we don't feel the sting of such curses. Get this right- Love covers all things.

Christians should check themselves out to see if they're living up to this commandment and if they're practicing it.

We as Christians are also asked to do good to them(people) that hate us and despitefully us or persecute us. when someone hurts you,give them love back, sometimes we feel we are been used and we really want to take it out on that person, think and remember that Christ tells us to do good to such people.

we as christians are bound to go through persecutions or tough times, if we can overcome such it becomes a glory and upliftment to us from God , we learn each and everyday from these situations and a crown of Glory is waiting for those who can show love in the face of persecution.

You know what, there is always a reward for any tough situation or persecution we face as christians, because when we are in Christ we are a new creation Old things pass away and we become new, We get blessings and reward from God through the love he had bestowed upon us as christians.

So everyone, Learn from this and start acting on this message,

My prayer is God will grant you the grace to show and love one another, I know some of think and see it's hard to do the above, But with prayers and commitment you can.